If you get some animal waste in a bite, it can lead to a salmonella or canpylobacter infection, which can cause fever, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.” Ok, yuck. One doesn’t need any more convincing than that to spend the 30 seconds it takes to rinse off fruit before taking a big old bite. ‘Nuff said.

Photo from MorgueFile.com.

Amping up your intake of low-fat, high-fiber foods, like oatmeal and bran cereal, is certainly a good start, and in a recent issue of Family Circle magazine, they gave a couple other good tips on getting more cancer-fighting foods into your daily food intake:

- Instead of eating a pastry for breakfast, drizzle honey on whole-grain toast to satisfy your sweet tooth.

- Munch on edamame (soybean pods boiled in salted water), rather than greasy potato chips, with your lunch.

- At dinner, replace half your meat with steamed vegetables. Or trade the entire serving for cooked pinto beans.

Photo from MorgueFile.

In a recent interview in OK! magazine, they gave a recipe for Sweet Soy Wild Salmon that keeps the team in tip-top fighting shape.

Sweet Soy Wild Salmon
Serves 2

10 oz wild salmon filet with skin
1 lb shiitake mushrooms
1 enoki mushroom
1/2 oz red chili
4 oz garlic
1/4 bunch parsley
2 oz sake
2 oz soy sauce

Marinade:
7 oz sweet soy sauce
1 teaspoon cinammon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 oz brown sugar

Combine all the ingredients of the marinade and mix well. Let the salmon filet (with skin on) marinate for an hour in the sauce. Saute the red chili, garlic and shiitake mushrooms, then add the enoki, parsley and sake. Add soy sauce to taste. Grill the salmon filet until the skin is crispy. Reduce marinade until it turns into a glaze. Serve the mushroom mixture with the filet of salmon on top. Finish off with glaze.

Photo from NBC.

“If you lose 5-7% of your weight, you cut the chances of diabetes in half,” she recently told People magazine, and since she lost a great-grandmother to the disease, this is certainly an issue that hits home with her. At a recent award show, the Mad Money actress filled People in on her decision.

Jenny Craig Ads? Why? I know people wonder because I’m quite comfortable with myself. I’m trying to be an inspiration to people who just want to get healthy.

What was your biggest diet downfall? Portion size. I don’t eat bad food. I eat organic; I eat vegetables. I probably just eat too much.

Good luck, Queen Latifah!

Photo from QueenLatifah.com.

That is a shame because The Journal of the National Cancer Institute recently reported that men who eat broccoli once a week are 45% less likely to be diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer than those that eat it less than once a month. Forty-five percent, folks! That stat is nothing to sneeze at. And if that’s not enough for you, eating cauliflower cuts their risk by a whopping 52%!

The Cancer Institute’s research indicates that the compounds in these vegetables seem to shield cells from DNA damage and slow down the growth of cancer cells. Just a half a cup a week is all they need … now to find more ways to hide the stuff at the dinner table.

Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, the California law firm that filed the lawsuit, alleged that this marketing campaign is “massively deceptive” since it focuses on the fact that these products are offering “clinically” and “scientifically” health benefits that cannot be found in other competing yogurt products. Dannon, of course, quickly countered that they “vigorously challenge this lawsuit” and “proudly stands by the claims of its products and the clinical studies which support them.”

In a recent WebMD article, Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, weighed in on the growing controversy. “Does this make yogurt a bad thing? No. If people want to eat yogurt, by all means, they should because you’re getting nutrients in yogurt that you’re not going to get in a pill.” The WebMD Director of Nutrition, Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, agreed with Bonci, saying that “Yogurt is good for you.” She furthermore suggested that when buying yogurt products, consumers should look for products that have “live and active cultures or are enriched with additional healthy bacteria because there’s sound science to document the healthfulness of those products.”

The ultimate decision in the battle of legal wrangling remains to be seen.

Photo from Dannon.com.

In a recent issue of People magazine, he gave a few of his specific tips:

Shop the periphery of grocery stores. Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy are there.

Avoid foods your grandmother wouldn’t have recognized. That’s the processed “edible, food-like substances” in the middle aisles.

At restaurants, ask for what’s local and grass-fed. Most local farmers don’t use pesticides. And food grown in healthy soil is more nutritious.

Don’t expect perfection. If we get it right one meal a day, we’ll be doing a lot for our health. I do splurge. I’ll have Cracker Jacks maybe once a year. They’re delicious! Although the prizes have gone way downhill.

I like the advice on not worrying about perfect. I know I easily “get it right” one meal a day, so to then work on the second and third meal of the day makes it all seem quite manageable. Treating our bodies right, supporting local farmers and focusing on our overall health and nutrition … what could be better?

• Gold’s Gym Alpine Tech adjustable weight jumprope ($11 at Wal-Mart)
• CherryMax Hammerhead sled to give you total control on steep or icy hills ($299 at rei.com)
• L.L. Bean’s Fitness in a Bottle to gather essentials for an outdoor workout ($23, llbean.com)
• Timex Ironman iControl Watch to not only record your times, but also handle your iPod tunes ($125, timex.com)
• Sierra Designs down mules ($35, sierradesigns.com)
• Playaway ready-to-go audio players have preloaded guided walking and yoga routines ($30, playawaydigital.com)
• Gaiam Everything Fits bag with its own separate sneaker compartment ($60, gaiam.com)
• Adidas Right to Play mini red ball helps out charities as well, as all proceeds are donated ($10, shopadidas.com)
• New Balance Cocona Run Jacket to keep away moisture, odor and protect you from UV rays ($70, newbalance.com)

Photo from Timex.

A separate study from the folks at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor noted that ground ginger caused ovarian cancer cells to attack themselves and die.

It is not yet known exactly how much ground ginger would make a difference, but certainly finding small ways to incorporate it into your daily diet can’t hurt, and ’tis the season for gingerbread men!

Photo from morguefile.